another night on state street

Why do people blog?
I've been sort of re-examining my reasons for the infrequent and relatively pointless posts that I put on here.

Am I entertaining people.... um.... not if the number of people who read this blog is any indication.

Here's a shout out to all 5 of ya ;-)

To keep in touch? Nah, I'd just call you up or send you an email if that was my goal.

I think maybe it's an outgrowth of whatever it is that makes people avid journal keepers.

And that I can understand, even if I can't articulate it. I've kept a journal pretty much my entire life. I don't plan on passing it along, I don't share it, and I've never given much more than a passing thought to what will happen to my journals after I'm gone. I write with the notion that they will never be read by anyone other than myself.

Ah, but there's the rub. I know people, even if it's only a few people, will read things that I put online. And I know these things will be there forever... or until that EMP pulse they talked about in Dark Angel....

*** you're no Lara Croft Jessica Alba! you're no Lara Croft***

So blogging is sort of like a journal, that you leave laying out on the table...
open...
during a dinner party....

But that's not why I'm sitting at this lap top typing tonight. That was a passing thought. I was pulling together my memories form last night and thought "why am I doing this again?" and got off on a tangent.

But in the end, I do it because sitting here, sipping my beer, listening to the cicadas and the crickets compete in the cooling summer evening, it's what makes me happy.

Is what I'm about to write a little different than what I'd write down in my journal, knowing no one else would ever read it?

Yes, and that's bad, and not how a person is supposed to write. But if you can live with it, so can I.

Yesterday (Friday) was a damn beautiful day in the city of Madison. The heat wave has broken, and the temperatures are what summer should be. Crawling slowing into the 80s in the morning, maybe flirting with 90 in the early afternoon, and then sliding back down into a cool comfortable evening.

Not the god-forsaken heat wave we endured for over a week. When sitting in the shade hurt. Ashley, in her 10 year old wisdom, told her daycare lady that it's probably because of global warming. Her daycare lady snapped back "no it's not. it's because of polution"

Ashley, in another display of wisdom, one that I think I could learn a lesson from. Didn't argue, even though she disagreed.

We over slept. The cool morning and the later sunrise tricked us into staying in bed too long. So I didn't get to ride my bike in. Instead Sarah and I rode in together.

We are out of bananas, and broke. Seriously broke. Like "we shouldn't buy bananas if we want to go out tonight" broke.

So as I was dawdling (i'm not even sure what that is, but I've been told that I do it frequently) around the house I made up a song to mark my longing for a banana.

"I wish I had a banana, oh I wish I had a banana
If I had a banana life would be complete
I wish I had a banana, oh I wish I had a banana
If I had a banana I'd never know defeat"

"That's not what I thought you were going to say" Sarah noted

"Really? What did you think I was going to say?"

"I thought you'd say 'If i had a banana I'd stick it up my seat'." Sarah is surly in the morning.

"Why in the name of pete would I say that?"

"Because asses and bananas go together like ice cream and cake."

I think that was her way of trying to tell me to quit dawdling and get ready for work already.
We had lunch together. I don't rememeber much of the rest of the day. other than that i didn't feel like working. We found a nice little park and ate our salads on a bench.

Sarah was a little distracted. Due, I think, to the fact that she hadn't eaten anything all day, but had consumed an admirable amount of coffee.

The day passes. Though not with any haste about it.

I picked Sarah up at 3:00, and we slowly got ready for the evening. Ashley was still at the grandparents (she ended up staying a third night even. She's having a good time down there).

I played some video games and we slowly started getting ready. Appearantly... though i didn't see evidence of it, I was dawdling again.

We raid the piggy bank, or in this case it's an A&W Root Beer jug, and head out.

The Harmony Bar:
2201 Atwood Ave.
Madison
608-249-4333
Hours: 11 am-11:45 pm Mon.-Fri., 11 am-8:45 pm Sat. & Sun.
Location: Near East



We've heard about it, but never tried it. There is construction on the side road, so we almost miss it. We park in back, and come in from the side.... like the gangsta's that we are. It's a bit of a dive bar. With obvious regulars that look up through their beards and mugs at us when we come in. We go through the bar to the dining area, take seat and peruse the menu. The pizza's look amazing. With combinations that I didn't even think were possible.

Walknut. on a pizza. for crissakes there's walnut on a pizza! now that is genious. I should note that they had the largest vegetarian selection that I've yet seen in a restuarant. Over half a page of non-meat possibilities. Me.... I like meat.

Sorry cute animals that had to die so that i could eat a burger... but i like meat.

We got cheesburgers. And sweet frak those were good cheeseburgers. 5.00 a piece, but they were the kind that you had to strain to get your mouth around, and dripped when you bit into them. mmmmmmmmm

Oh, and there was a disco ball on the ceiling. I'm pretty sure they have music there often, but not on the night we were there. And I dont' know what kind. Could be country, could be jazz... I don't kow. Should the disco ball have tipped me off one way or the other?

Then to The Candy Shop
1947 Winnebago St
Madison
(608) 244-0744

It's this little place owned, and as far as i've seen, staffed by one lady. The place has all those candies that you thought they didn't make anymore. Dots (the ones on a roll of paper) slow pokes, charleston chews, squirell nut zippers, gummy fruit slices, licorice pipes (red and black), now and laters, atomic fireballs, lemonheads (okay, you still see those around) as well as shaved ice and specialty chocolates from wisconsin chocolatiers.

yes, chocolatier is a real word... i had to look it up though. It's been one of our favorite places to go afterwards if we eat in that neighborhood.

Three or our bucks and you can blissfully slip into a sugar coma in minutes. If you do go, I HIGHLY recommend this littel dark chocolate and peanut butter thing. Freakin' awesome.

State Street:
Parked, walked around a bit. The musicians were out. There was Cat-Fish Stevens (the stee; guitar and cowboy hat guy) and the other steel guitar guy (the one with taps on his shoes), a guy and girl singing old protest songs along with a guitar (her voice was amazing, and she was tiny, but sh kept cracking up when she forgot the words), and the guy who-I -can't-think-of-a-catchy-name-for. He plays either flute or sax, and he always find the places with amazing acoustics. He was playing "The Girl From Ipanema" on his flute, tucked in the shade of the concrete book store on campus, when we walked by.

And new street musician. An honest to goodness troubadour. Or maybe there's a better title, but I'm calling him a troubadour. He wore a wide brimmed beat up hat that was pulled low over his eyes. His beard was grey and his clothes were travel worn. He had a guitar. On his back was a bass drum and a series of cymbols and chimes hooked up to a pedal on his leg. An alien looking contraption held a kazoo, harmonica and pan flute within reach of his mouth.

I didn't get a picture of him, but I managed to get this little audio clip.



We killed a couple hours at the Fair Trade Coffee house. We took turns reading the isthmus and onion. I stumbled upon the startling realization that i don't like iced coffee.

I had to choose. A large iced coffee at $2.00, or some mocha chill blended esspresso drink at $5.50. I did some quick math in my head, and decided that the iced coffee would provide my sluggish brain with more caffeine (C8H10N4O2) per dollar. But there's a reason that you drink hot coffee and throw it out once it's cold. Lesson learned.... move on already.

The Union. Mecca of the state street experience. I could never do it justice. If you've talked to me for 5 minutes you know I'm obsessed with that damn place. There was music, though I dont' know the band, and they weren't great. But it didn't matter. The cool breeze was blowing in off the lake, there were people talking and drinking and smoking cloves and cigars. Dressed nicely, but not prowling. There was a surreal night time energy seething through the place, skimming out over the water like mist and turning the entire night into a movie set.

I walked out onto one of the piers while Sarah sat and people watched and took a few pictures.





We hung around there until... oh I don't know, 9:30. Then got a call that the karaoke event was going down on the other side of town. The karaoke even was one of the central events for the evening. The reason for making sure we had the night free. We had been graciously invited to attend the retiring of Dexter's White Rabbit. An even that would send ripples through the karaoke community.

Still, we almost didn't go. We almost stayed at the union, with the band we didn't know, just the two of us, on a cement retaining wall near the water.

The rest of the evening is someone else's story more than mine. It was fun, and I'm glad we were there for it. I've formed volumes of theories and hypothesis on karaoke as a result. Where as I had always assumed that there was only one breed of karaok'ster, I have since witnessed a second, more elusive, but perhaps more rewarding, species.

***fighting the temptation o go into it... to tell the story about the only other time i've been to a karaoke "thing" and how truly, truly terrible it was. fight it christopher, fight it....****

Instead, i wil let the following speak for me. I will only add that this (see below) is the karaoke that I could endorse.